Half-Marathon Top Ten

Well, April 2008 is pretty much turning out AWESOME.

I ran the Salt Lake City Half-Marathon on Saturday. It was so amazing. I had several favorite parts . . . here’s a top ten list.

10. Seeing the fake-tan orange marathoner run past me – barefoot.

9. Turning the corner at 27th South and realizing that the wind was behind me for the rest of the race.

8. Seeing people a lot younger and a lot thinner than me finish after I did. Of course, plenty of people a lot older and heavier totally blew by me. Some of those people even passed me more than once!

7. Only sort of peeing my pants. I did, however, lose valuable time because I made a potty stop about Mile 8. I stood in line for nearly 10 minutes, I promise. I would love to say I stood in line for 20, but that would be lying.

6. Finding out that nobody in my family had a camera to record this moment in history. Are you surprised? Neither were we.

5. Seeing my 92-year-old Grandma and my aunt (age undisclosed) cheering me on about a mile before the finish. My aunt even hugged me. Gross. For her. They drove clear up here just to watch me shuffle by. I thoughtfully ran very slowly so they got a good, long look. I’m so nice.

4. Having the Elite marathoners pass me at Liberty Park – their 23rd mile and my 10th. I was doing ok, tired, but still running. They were like machines - no sweating, no signs of fatigue. I can’t even imagine being that fast. It was absolutely unbelievable and so cool to get to see them.

3. Rounding the corner to run down the middle of the Gateway Mall and realizing that I was actually going to finish this thing.

2. My mom getting all teary and emotional as I passed them about 100 yards before the end. She told me that she was more proud of me for doing this than for raising my kids and going to law school. Dang. Who knew making her so proud could be done in 4 short months?

1. Hearing my kids yell "Mom!! Mom!!" and turning to see them waving and cheering just as I crossed the finish line.

I must clarify #2 a little. My mom is proud of me for other stuff too, it’s just that running is so not my bag. Really, anything athletic is so completely out-of-character for me, and she just feels like this was really an out of the box accomplishment for me, something that doesn’t come naturally in any way. She’s totally right.

Now if I can just get somebody to fall madly in love with me in the next nine days, that would be a major trifecta (bar, race, love) and April '08 would officially Rock Forever. Ok, ok, it will anyway.